Orla Brady Talks Tasha Lem

Orla Brady has revealed some more intriguing details on her role as Tasha Lem in The Time of the Doctor.

Brady told Flicks and the City: “I do play a galactic nun. Tasha Lem is somebody who is from the Doctor’s past. She’s an old friend of his and in this episode he comes to her for help.

“We have not met Tasha before, but we’ve met her forces. We’ve met the troops of the Papal Mainframe in a former episode and this is the big boss. She’s the Mother Superious of the Papal Mainframe.

“She’s extraordinarily powerful. So she’s like the head of the Galactic UN. She’s a peacekeeping force but they’ve got more firepower and more willingness to use it than the Earthly UN. They are a scary outfit if you are on the wrong side of them, but I think the Doctor has to feel that she will help them, and indeed she will, because she’s an old friend of his.”

On the Silence she said: “Obviously the Silence are part, or become part, of the Papal Mainframe, so I did have scenes where Silence were present and they have a certain allegiance to me.”

On whether her character is good or evil: “Broadly speaking I’m on the side of good. I’m supposed to be not frightening, but authoritative. You’re supposed to believe that she can run these troops and the Silence, and this giant ship and the UN of space.

“She will use her firepower if necessary because she does get cross, shall we say, with the Doctor at a certain point because she’s used to troops pretty much being under her control and doing what she asks of them. She does ask the Doctor to do a particular thing and he’s a bit of a loose cannon and goes rogue, so she’s not best pleased to a certain point.”

On her character’s origins: “She’s human, but Steven Moffat said she’s a descendant of humans. It’s like there’s some element of her that is not quite human. She doesn’t have specific superpowers, much to my huge disappointment, but there’s a strain of something else, something alien.”

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